MOUNT HOPKINS, AZ – Lord knows I have reported on just about every horrifying death imaginable, but every now and then one comes around that has me thinking about the victim and muttering, “You poor, poor son of a bitch.”

On Monday, 55-year-old Steven Johnson was found dead in the Santa Rita Mountains hanging from his rappelling gear and covered in bee stings. The dog Johnson often took with him was also found dead and covered in bee stings on the cliff Johnson had rappelled from.

Johnson, an experienced hiker and mountain climber, was reportedly working an area of Mount Hopkins on Friday to prepare it for future climbers. Sheriff’s deputies went to search the site after he failed to show up for work on Monday.

An autopsy will be conducted to determine actual cause of death, but Santa Cruz County’s Lt. Raoul Rodriguez believes that Johnson may have disturbed a bees’ nest while hammering his ropes into the cliff. Some comments state that this is a terrible time of year in regards to bees, and some mentioned that the bees that attacked Johnson and his dog were probably the dreaded Africanized Honey Bee, aka the true Killer Bee.…

On Monday, Nathan Schram received a phone call from 34-year-old Steven Johnson. Johnson was calling to inform Schram that his wife, 32-year-old Manya Johnson, had slipped in the shower and died. Johnson added that he’d then dismembered his wife’s body and had stored the parts in the garage of Schram’s White Bear Lake home. Johnson then asked Schram to rent a portable storage unit so he could move Manya’s body.

If you are wondering why Johnson would be so comfortable admitting to Schram that he’d cut up his wife and assumed it would be ok to store the body parts in Schram’s garage without Schram’s knowledge, it turns out Johnson met Schram while both served time in prison.

Johnson had served 17 years after pleading guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 1996.…